May in Alberta

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I flew to Calgary after spending the first week of May in London. I was there briefly for the first time last year and thought it was such a cute little city. This time, I was there for about two weeks, and discovered how deserted it actually is.

I worked from a coworking space downtown Monday-Friday, and at typical rush hour times (9am, lunch, 5pm), Calgary was still a dead town. And they call Edmonton Deadmonton. 😜 Over the weekend, the sun was out, and I’d go to popular spots e.g. the Bow River, and it was still very empty. It’s interesting how Calgary and Dublin both have a metro population of about 1.4 million, but Dublin is so much busier. Yes Dublin’s urban area is almost double that of Calgary’s, but Dublin is > 2x busier than Calgary.

I enjoyed the slower pace of life in a cosy Airbnb with a Slovakian couple and their 4 year old, and gymming 6x a week.

Some other notes on Calgary: every other person sounds like how one does when they imitate the Canadian accent 😅 + I knew that I was back in Canada at the sound of everyone thanking bus drivers, the sight of Tim Hortons, donairs, and (in Calgary) magpies.

One of my best friends joined me from Toronto, and we went on a week-long Rockies road trip. Many hikes still had avalanche warnings and knee-deep snow, but we still found plenty to do.

A Rockies road trip was on our (and most Canadians’) bucket list, and it was incredible. There are amazing views everywhere you look, whether it’s from the foot or summit of a mountain, or from a car. We saw lots of animals too – chipmunks, elk, deer, mountain goats… and came close to seeing bears twice, but unfortunately did not see any moose. The next time I come back will have to be in the winter to snowboard!

Discoveries

Altruisto.com, a Chrome extension that donates to underfunded, effective charities when you shop online. At no additional cost to you!

MealSquares, a scone-like “nutritionally complete meal made from whole-foods. More protein per calorie than a Big Mac, less sugar than a banana.” More convenient than Soylent, too!

I started working with two Effective Altruism (EA)-aligned companies this month, which I’m really excited about. I’m currently in San Francisco, and am looking forward to the EA Global conference next week. See you in next month’s blogpost about June in San Francisco, or on my Now page.